At 6:12:27 AM on Monday, August 30, 2004, tgpedersen wrote:
> Seems in ON indefinite NP's began with the adjective, NP's
> beginning with the cognate of 'a' didn't exist.
The last statement's pretty much true, but word order of NPs
is highly variable: <gamall maðr> '(an) old man' and <maðr
gamall> 'man old' are both fine. This is also true of the
definite NP:
sá hinn blindi maðr
that-one the blind man
maðr sá hinn blindi
man that-one the blind
sá maðr hinn blindi
that man the blind
All are 'the blind man'. <Bróðir mín> 'my brother' is
typical, with the possessive after the noun, as is <þræll
konungs> 'the king's thrall'. Then there are the split
NPs, as in <Maðr gekk í lyptingina í rauðum kyrtli mikill ok
vaskligr> 'A large and gallant-looking man in a red tunic
went onto the poop-deck', where the subject, 'a large and
gallant-looking man', is <maðr ... mikill ok vaskligr>.
Brian